Analysis: Genre

Autobiography, Coming-of-age, Jewish Literature

So we know what you’re thinking, this isn’t exactly an autobiography. Anne is writing it herself and about herself, but she’s not really telling her life story per se. A diary is a very different kind of literature: an intimate portrait of an individual’s daily experiences, not filtered through any kind of editorial process and often not with the intention of telling the whole of your life’s experiences, just those surrounding the time of the particular entry. All the same, autobiography sort of fits, but you can debate us on the point if you feel like it.

We also think this is a coming-of-age story. We get to see a glimpse of Anne’s life during her adolescence, a point when she undergoes a lot of growing up and changes. Her circumstances of living in hiding also cause her to have unique personal growth. All in all, we enter Anne’s life when she is a carefree girl; we leave it when she is a much more mature and thoughtful young woman.